Smartphone app increases contraceptive use in Bihar

In a paper presented at the recently concluded International Conference on Family Planning in Nusa Dua, Indonesia, researchers from the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP) showed that a smartphone app had increased the use of modern contraceptives in villages of Bihar.

Smartphone apps could emerge as the best tools to create public health awareness. In a paper presented at the recently concluded International Conference on Family Planning in Nusa Dua, Indonesia, researchers from the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP) showed that a smartphone app had increased the use of modern contraceptives in villages of Bihar.

"A smartphone app containing motivational videos developed to help married rural women in India better understand contraceptive choices led to a dramatic increase in the number of women using modern family planning methods in just a few months," said the CCP researchers. CCP is a part of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Women who watched videos were 4.5 times more likely to use modern contraceptive methods than those who did not, said the findings.

In recent times, smartphones have been used by public health specialists to boost prenatal care for women and treatment adherence among patients. A press release quoted Sanjanthi Velu of CCP as saying that mobile technology can "encourage conversations between women and frontline health workers that are interactive, culturally relevant, and personalized - and that lead to increased, sustained use of modern contraceptive methods."

CCP developed the app, called Gyan Jyoti, for use by ASHAs, community health workers, who visit the homes of rural women. The app contained entertaining and educational films, testimonials from happy couples who are using contraception, Q&A videos with physicians and other information that aims to dispel myths and misconceptions.

In one district of Bihar, smartphones loaded with the Gyan Jyoti app were given to 14 ASHAs, while in another district another 14 ASHAs were supplied with more low-tech SD cards. Each set of ASHAs regularly visits roughly 1,400 rural women. The ASHAs with the smartphone app were able to customize their family planning counseling, showing videos most appropriate to answer each woman's particular questions. Those ASHAs who had the SD card could show the videos, but did not have the benefit of customizing their interaction.

A few months later, they found that 22 % of women who were counseled with the app were using modern contraception such as IUDs, oral contraceptive pills and injectable contraception at the end of the study period, while 13 % of the women were using modern contraception in the district without the app.

About 17% of the women who had access to the smartphone app watched some of the videos, while 2.4% of those who only had access to the SD card watched the videos. There are plans to adapt the app for different languages or other types of health information that families may need.